Feature Article: Low Times in Las Vegas - The AnimeFF Scandal

[Jason]

AnimeFF was founded with the purpose of leveraging the goodwill of the fandom community to generate money for breast cancer research, specifically the Susan G. Komen Foundation. With this in mind they launched the anime “Tour for the Cure” convention, with the idea that the entire proceeds of the convention be donated.

Needing help to get the convention started and help to have it promoted, they turned to a variety of people in the anime community, including Richard Stott, founder of the well-respected Anime Vegas convention, and the team over at theOtaku.com, who helped in a number of ways, including running an anime art contest. The winners of the contest were promised a number of gaming systems, donated to the con because AnimeFF’s parent organization, DMI (Duplicate Mass Industries) has ties to the gaming industry. MTV was even set to come out and video tape the cosplay parade.

Instead, the worst things that could ever happen in an anime con happened: Contracts for the convention rooms were not signed. The three day con was suddenly cut to a one day con. Event after event was canceled. Accommodations promised to the various con guest were never made available. Finally, AnimeFF representative Jeff Borncamp told the convention center people that the con was over with, while he ran off with all the registration money and dealer deposits.

I strongly suggest you read the full coverage that theOtaku.com has posted. In the meanwhile, here’s a quick Q & A with Adam of theOtaku.com about it all.

MJ: Adam, tell our readers a little about yourself and your site if you don't mind.

AG: I'm the publisher/founder of theOtaku.com. We're a 700,000 unique visitor/month fandom art sharing portal (fan art, wallpapers, cosplay photos, fan manga, etc.) with a strong news element. We also operate myOtaku.com, which hosts over 60,000 blogs and created Art Of Otaku, a popular 'how to anime draw' book that is now being turned into a web-based project.

I spend most of my time trying to figure out how to help artists share, improve, and monetize their work, as well as making sure the sites are running smoothly from a backend perspective. Our news team does a great job with daily anime coverage and it's only recently that we put a lock-down on news coverage so that I could personally document the damages done by AnimeFF.

MJ: theOtaku.com got involved in this whole mess because you agreed to host an anime art contest for AnimeFF. How exactly did this get started? Did you go to them and offer to help or did they contact you about doing it?

AG: Actually we got involved with the whole mess before the contest. AnimeFF contacted me because they were big fans of theOtaku and wanted me to become one of their guests of honor. They also agreed to fly out some people from our news team to cover the event. I was supposed to have a theOtaku booth, host a member meet-up, host a panel, etc. I normally wouldn't be interested in such a small convention, but was intrigued by the idea of a charity-only con.

As time progressed, they kept leaning on me and Gail, our administrator, for more and more. We had a ton of other stuff on our plate but made time just because it was a charity event. They asked for help on marketing and on what events they should run. They later came up with the idea of giving us eight consoles as prizes to build buzz for the event (which it did) and to create a breast cancer awareness art gallery. They told me again and again that the consoles were in their office and that they'd rush them off as soon as the event was over.

They ended up ignoring or not acting on probably 90% of the advice we gave them. They also reneged on about 99% of their promises, which has caused us and many other parties related to the convention a lot of hardship.

MJ: Who exactly were you in contact with, and have you heard from them at all since the con meltdown?

AG: I've primarily had contact with two people, Aaron Ecker and Jeffrey Borncamp. I spent most of my time on the phone with Aaron leading up to the convention and Jeff was the on-site representative. Almost everything Aaron told me over the phone ended up being a lie. Jeff was no better, as he abandoned me and the voice actors at the convention, leaving us without a place to stay (and me without a flight back home).

If it had just been me who was scammed, I would have probably written it off and moved on. I have much more positive things to focus on. However, this was a charity event that involved many parties in the anime community. A lot of these parties don't have a public voice, like I do, so I took it as my responsibility to shine a light on the scammers and hope that they couldn't pull anything off like this again.

I talked with Aaron following the convention, but it was just more lies and excuses. A month later nothing has been done by them and I have no interest in speaking with either him or Jeff. I was threatened with a lawsuit, however, for my continued coverage.

MJ: AnimeFF had promised 8 prizes to the winners (2 PS3's and 6 Wii's) that they never delivered. Is there any legal grounds that could allow you to attempt to force them to honor their agreement, a contract or the like?

AG: I'm sure we have legal ground. We're not a big company so a lawsuit involving three different parties (Jeff is based in California, Aaron in Arizona, and the parent company in Ohio) might come at too great a cost for us...

MJ: What have you been able to find out about Duplicate Mass Industries, AnimeFF's parent company?

AG: I've gathered a lot of information on them and, surprise surprise, everything I've learned is contrary to what I was told by Aaron and Jeff. I suspect DMI to be a shell company, personally.

Before the convention, Aaron and Jeff would tell me how DMI was AnimeFF's parent company. After the convention, Aaron told me that DMI has nothing to do with AnimeFF, despite a lot of documented evidence to the contrary.
When you're running a scam, it certainly helps to have a registered company to point to as your backer. I know neither me nor Rich (from Anime Vegas) would have been involved if there wasn't.

MJ: The whole point of the convention and the contest was to raise money for breast cancer awareness. Who was to get the raised money, and did they receive any of the funds?

AG: The Susan G. Komen Foundation was supposed to receive, as I was told, 100% of the convention's ticket sales, not profits. Thus, I'd estimate they were supposed to receive between $2,000 and $3,000. We called the Foundation and found out that nothing was donated.

What's worth emphasizing is that that $2,000-$3,000 isn't a donation by AnimeFF, it's an aggregate donation by the 100 attendees/anime fans of $20-$30 each. That's what's most outrageous.

MJ: Do you know if AnimeFF, or DMI rather, have ever attempted something like this before?

AG: I know that Jeff Borncamp, AnimeFF's representative, has a sordid history. Three of his former World of Warcraft guildmates emailed me with a story about how he stole $5,000-$8,000 worth of virtual currency from their guild and then sold it all on eBay.

MJ: Is there anything interested readers do to help everyone hurt by this?

AG: Yes! In my eyes, two things will right the wrongs done by this horrid "convention."

First, we have to get the winners of the art contest AnimeFF held their prizes or a cash equivalent. 300 artists spent thousands of hours on their emotionally-charged pieces. It would be horrendous for all those energies to have gone toward a sham contest. FanimeCon donated a Wii toward this and Rich from Anime Vegas put in another $200. theOtaku will fill in the holes, but it's a lot of money ($2700 in total) and we really need help.

Second, we need to raise money for Komen to philosophically make up for the donation that never was. I'm in talks with a few organizations that have ideas to help, such as holding a charity auction.

I hope to document cases of goodwill and generosity among the anime community on theOtaku.com.

MJ: Adam, thank you for your time. The actions of AnimeFF and DMI are deplorable, and the work being done by you, Rich over at Anime Vegas, the guys over at FanimeCon, and everyone else trying to repair the damage done are to be commended for their actions.

[Emeryl Tekutsu]

Wow, that's horrible.
Has anyone reported those people to the Better Business Bureau?

[Jason]

AnimeFF doesn't appear to have ever been real. DMI should be reportable I'd think, assuming they aren't a shell.

[Floating_Sakura]

I dont' even think they are even really affiliated with DMI, that person running AnimeFF just claims they are.

[Neuroretardant]

I freely admit to not having read every single one of their news articles pertaining to this issue, also that I take a fairly dim view to humanity in general, but the immediate question that popped to mind was "didn't anybody ever to stop and think that wait, this is sounding progressively sketchier and sketchier" in what appears to be a long build-up to the actual hilarious failure that was the con? Or try to confirm details/ensure all the contracts, documents and whatnot were in place before they started contacting dealers/sending out the advertisements/boarded a plane to the convention/whatever the point of no return was, after which they couldn't just say "ok, fuck this" and pull out was?

It's funny because it seems that I'm always reading stories about how people got ripped off/scammed by various entities claiming to be "working for charity" because since the other party claims to be working for the better good, suddenly they feel the people they're dealing with are somehow more despite the fact it's still the same Joe Blow Sketchanonymous on the other line.

Also,

"Adam, you are so sued. You have no idea how sued you are." And the "f" word was used a few times too.

I will have to use that at work next week.

[Adam]

"didn't anybody ever to stop and think that wait, this is sounding progressively sketchier and sketchier"

Absolutely :-). Unfortunately for us, we were pot-committed by a certain point and had no choice but to go through with it.

I personally had a contest to oversee, with $2,700 in prizes at stake...

Adam

[VegasRich]

Originally Posted by Emeryl Tekutsu

Wow, that's horrible.
Has anyone reported those people to the Better Business Bureau?

Yes, to the BBB, The FTC and the FBI (IC3).

[Jason]

Hey guys, welcome to our forums.

[batateam]

AG: The Susan G. Komen Foundation was supposed to receive, as I was told, 100% of the convention's ticket sales, not profits. Thus, I'd estimate they were supposed to receive between $2,000 and $3,000. We called the Foundation and found out that nothing was donated.

What's worth emphasizing is that that $2,000-$3,000 isn't a donation by AnimeFF, it's an aggregate donation by the 100 attendees/anime fans of $20-$30 each. That's what's most outrageous.

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[batateam]

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